Chapter Text
The first month of Anya living in the monastery with the Ninja was surprisingly uneventful, to be honest. The looming threat of Lord Garmadon returning kept everyone on edge…for about two weeks. As it turned out, it can in fact take a long time for an evil overlord in another realm to actually return to this realm, so by the end of the second week, the Ninja began to relax a little. They had kept up with their training pretty consistently up to that point, but now the month was out and it was relatively rare that the Ninja would be found on the training course at all, much to Wu’s displeasure.
Not that it was never in use, though. The Ninja may have let their guards down, but Anya kept at her own training every day, the anger in her former employer’s eyes haunting her as she pushed forward. Now that it was common knowledge that Anya betrayed Lord Garmadon while in his service to protect and join the Ninja, she was sure that once he returned she would be on his personal hit list. The Ninja deserved this break, but Anya couldn’t afford to let her guard down.
Nya was another interesting addition to the equation. She seemed like a relatively well-adjusted girl considering having been kidnapped and taken to the underworld only a month ago, but the experience did seem to bring about a level of determination that frequently brought her to the training course as well, often when Anya was using it as it was less crowded than when the Ninja were training. While her inexperience was still pretty visible, Nya was quickly gaining skill in her fighting, and her current goal of beating Kai’s speed record didn’t seem too far out of reach.
Today, however, it was only Anya currently training. Nya had talked about going down to Jamanaki Village, and the Ninja seemed to be taking another day off, as they were nowhere to be seen. As Anya dodged the series of swords she had just modified to increase their speed, a faint yell of frustration came from the general direction of the inside of the monastery. Anya didn’t look up, still focused on the course ahead of her, but she did focus her hearing towards the door slightly. Sure enough, all four of the Ninja’s voices floated outside, shouting commands at each other.
“Oh, my gosh, was that the coolest move you’ve ever seen, or what?” Kai’s voice. Of course, Anya thought to herself, they were playing video games again. In her opinion, though, they were getting a little sloppy with it. At first, at least, they would try to sneak their way into the game room and keep their voices down in order to get out of training, but now their voices carried across the entire monastery. One of these days Sensei Wu was sure to catch them.
As if on cue, Sensei Wu himself stepped out of his room from the other side of the monastery. Anya hopped off the wheel of blades to acknowledge him as he looked around, a confused (and slightly annoyed) expression on his face.
“I thought I heard the Ninja training,” he said. “They were not with you?”
Anya huffed a laugh. “Nope, not for the past week.”
“Hmm.” Wu’s brow furrowed as he turned toward the game room where the voices were coming from. He let out a resigned sigh, and made his way toward the door, Anya on his heels while trying not to grin. This ought to be golden. Sure enough, the Ninja were all sitting on the floor in front of the TV, pizza boxes strewn about them (Anya didn’t remember them even ordering pizza), the Golden Weapons lying between the pizzas, the Ninjas’ focus never leaving the screen as they geared up to beat what looked like the final boss of the game. Or they would have, if it weren’t for Wu sneaking over to the power outlet and unplugging the TV. Immediately the Ninja all started groaning and complaining, but Wu seemed to have just about had it. He started berating them about how Lord Garmadon would return for the Golden Weapons one day, and that just because he wasn’t back yet didn’t mean that they could slack off.
“But Sensei,” said Zane, “ever since Lord Garmadon has been gone, Ninjago has had nothing but peace.” Jay backed this up with his two cents on how boring peace is.
“We can train tomorrow,” Cole groaned, leaning back.
Wu crossed his arms. “Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today,” he said in his “teaching moment” voice. The Ninja didn’t really seem to want to get with the program, though.
“Well, I was gonna eat this pizza tomorrow, so if that’s the case…” Cole started, but let out a surprised “Ow!” as Wu kicked the slice of pizza out of Cole’s hand.
“No pizza for you!” he snapped, and Anya snorted, before quickly shoving her fist against her mouth to hide her amusement. Wu again emphasized how important it was for them to train in order to reach their full potential, and this time Kai butted in.
“Uh, remember when we did a little thing called the Tornado of Creation? I thought that was pretty insane,” he said, and Anya couldn’t help but roll her eyes.
“You guys made a ferris wheel,” she said, deadpan.
“Well, maybe we wouldn’t have been so distracted if our only ally with us wasn’t someone who just tried to kill us,” Kai shot back, but there was no heat to his words; in fact, he had a slightly teasing smirk on his face. He seemed to be a fan of rubbing Anya’s past in her face whenever he could.
“Okay, I’ve said before, that was one time—”
“Enough!” Wu interrupted their banter, turning his attention back to the rest of the Ninja as Kai and Anya fell silent at his order. “You four have merely scratched the surface of your full potential. There are still so many secrets you have yet to unlock. You haven't even begun to tap into what powers your golden weapons hold.” As he was speaking, Anya saw out of the corner of her eye the pizza slice that Wu had kicked out of Cole’s hand, laying on the Sword of Fire. A slight sizzling sound emanated from it, as if it was heating up again. This went unnoticed by the Ninja, however.
“You wanna talk secret powers?” Cole asked. “Check this out!” Using the Scythe of Quakes as a prop, he lifted up the plug for the TV and pushed it back into the power outlet. The TV flashed on again, the video game’s soundtrack starting as they picked up their remotes. Anya shook her head slightly, still smiling to herself, and headed towards the hall.
No sooner did she take one step out of the room, however, did she see Nya burst into the monastery and start rushing towards the game room, her eyes wide and face drained of blood. Anya’s stomach curdled with worry. Nya wasn’t supposed to be back so soon, what could have possibly caused her to rush back in such a panic? Vaguely, Anya heard Zane speaking, seemingly trying to appease Sensei Wu.
“Don't worry, Master,” he said. “We will be ready when Lord Garmadon returns.” Just then, Nya made it to the doorway, pushing past Anya without a second thought.
“Guys!” she gasped, clutching her side as she attempted to catch her breath. “Lord Garmadon…he’s returned!”
Anya’s body felt rigid and floating at the same time. Her mind started rushing through every awful scenario that could happen, and almost had to fight off a laugh at the almost absurd timing of Nya’s announcement. Clenching her fists to ground herself, Anya turned to look at the Ninja, who all sat up in shock at Nya’s words.
“He was seen attacking Jamanakai Village!” Nya finished as she finally seemed to catch her breath. All was completely silent for a moment, then like a rubber band being snapped, the Ninja all sprang up and scrambled about the room, struggling with their hoods, tripping over themselves, and trying to find their Golden Weapons under all the pizza boxes. Anya steeled herself to head towards her room to grab a blade and help them, but stopped when she saw Sensei Wu’s expression.
He did not show any sense of alarm or worry on his face, and although he could sometimes be known for stoicism, it was always clear when Wu was unhappy about something, and there was absolutely no sense of urgency in his demeanor as he watched the Ninja flounder about. Anya frowned, then turned to Nya.
“You saw Garmadon at Jamanakai Village?” she asked, and Nya swallowed slightly before shaking her head.
“No, I didn’t even make it to town,” she replied. “I only made it halfway down the mountain stairs before the mailman came up to warn me.”
Hmm. Before Anya could question the matter any further Jay tripped over his own feet and dropped his nunchucks, which Nya picked up for him.
“Oh, uh, uh, th-thanks-uh…” Jay stuttered before Nya cut him off.
“Hurry!”
“Okay!” Finally, all four Ninja were properly suited up and armed and made their way out the door to head down to the stables under the monastery where the dragons were being kept. Nya and Wu followed close behind, Anya keeping pace with them.
“Aren’t you going with them?” Nya asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs. Anya took another glance at Wu, who still seemed as impassible as before.
“Not this time, I don’t think.” At Nya’s confused and slightly concerned expression, Anya smiled in a way that she hoped was reassuring. There were still some residuals of being a henchman to Lord Garmadon lingering, and Anya was still working on seeming less unsettling to her new teammates.
“I think things might be different than they seem,” Anya said, catching Wu’s eye this time. Was it just her imagination, or did he almost seem amused?
Nya still looked a bit confused, but turned her attention to the Ninja, who were all (somewhat clumsily) mounting their dragons.
“Can I help you guys? I’ve gotten further in the course,” she said to Kai.
“Sorry, sis,” said Kai in the smug voice of a teenager who knows absolutely nothing, “but where we go, danger abounds.” He reached for the reigns in front of him, which were just out of his reach without getting out of the saddle. “Uh, a little help?” he mumbled in a much more embarrassed tone. Nya rolled her eyes slightly, but handed him the reigns anyway.
With a newfound energy, the Ninja launched their dragons out of their stalls and took flight towards the direction of the village. Nya sighed.
“Well, if Garmadon is back, I should probably get back to the course,” she said. “No good just waiting around to get kidnapped again.”
“If it makes you feel any better,” Anya called as Nya started up the steps again, “I’m not so sure that’s what the Ninja are gonna find.”
Nya stopped and turned around again, that same questioning look on her face. Anya turned to Wu, who smiled invitingly.
“Garmadon’s not actually back, is he?” Anya asked him outright, and Wu nodded.
“I have been meditating on the safety of Ninjago with my Spirit Smoke, and I have seen no sign of any darkness arriving in Jamanakai Village or anywhere else in Ninjago.”
Right, the Spirit Smoke. Anya couldn’t pretend to fully understand the supernatural tools that Wu implemented in his life, but from what he had explained before, it wasn’t so much a fortune teller as it was more of a sort of weather report but for the balance of good and evil in Ninjago. It wouldn’t give specific details of what was going on in the general day-to-day, but apparently it would alert him to any serious misfortune. Wu had invited Anya to attempt to commune with the Spirit Smoke with him, but while Anya found the meditation aspect useful, she couldn’t seem to grasp anything from the supernatural herself. Probably due to her lack of any kind of powers, but that was okay. Someone had to help Nya balance out the mystical bullshit in this place.
“So, it was just a false alarm?” Nya asked.
“It would seem so,” said Wu. “You are wise, though, for wanting to continue to train. Though you are not a Ninja, a sharp mind and body is always important in the face of adversity. Hopefully an event like this will help open the Ninja’s eyes.”
Anya clapped her hands together. “Well, on that note,” she said, “mind if I join you on the training course, Nya?”
The next half hour went by fairly uneventfully. Anya and Nya worked through the training course at slowly increasing speeds, only stopping to receive mail from the slightly embarrassed looking mailman.
“I must have given quite the scare earlier if those dragons flying by were any indication, huh?” he chuckled sheepishly as he handed over an assortment of letters and bills. “Sorry about that. I was gonna skip town, but someone stopped me and let me know it wasn’t really Lord Garmadon, just some bratty kid trying to rile people up.”
“Really?” Anya asked skeptically. “How did one kid manage to pull off a scare that successful?”
“Beats me,” said the mailman. “Think he was from some kind of reformatory place or something, so probably some delinquent who knows how to push people’s buttons.”
Reformatory place? Anya had no clue why that particular wording sounded weirdly familiar, but it stuck in her mind for some reason. Before she could ask any more questions, however, the mailman had gone, and after handing the mail off to Wu (how exactly he made money to pay the bills, Anya wasn’t sure but didn’t really want to question), Anya rejoined Nya on the course.
After about another ten minutes, a roar from what sounded like Kai’s dragon broke through the air, signaling the Ninja’s return. Anya hopped off the moving planks as they all burst through the gates, chatting very animatedly. The noise of the gates opening startled Nya, who smacked face-first into the training dummy and falling on her back.
“Hey, Nya,” Jay’s voice carried over slightly as he went to help her up, but the rest of their conversation was drowned out by the other three Ninja crowding around a bag Cole was holding and bickering.
“Look, I agreed to the tournament, but we still weren’t supposed to see this!” Cole pulled the bag away from Kai’s grasping hands, the latter groaning.
“Oh, come on, Cole! There might have been some detail on that scroll we missed, it could tell us something!”
“Really?” Cole drawled sarcastically. “The ancient chicken scratch scroll that even Zane could barely read?”
Anya almost felt like she was being baited into asking, but found herself doing so anyway. “Okay, I’ll bite,” she said. “What scroll?”
“This one!” Kai said triumphantly, managing to sneak a hand inside the bag and grab what looked like the oldest scroll of parchment Anya had ever seen. Ignoring Cole’s squawk of protest, Kai practically bounded up to Anya before opening the scroll and practically shoving it in her face. Pulling her head back sharply, Anya studied the contents of the scroll.
Cole was right about the text, it did look like chicken scratch. Aside from being in what looked like a much older language than she’d ever seen, the text itself was very spindly and faded, and it was hard to make out more than a few symbols. It was honestly surprising that even someone as smart and insightful as Zane could make out much of anything from the written words. Something else stood out on the page, however, and that was the illustrations. Pictured in four corners were what looked like four ninja, all with their faces covered, but the colors of their gi undeniably corresponding with each of the four ninja present today. Most intriguing of all, in the middle of the four ninja, was an illustration of one more, drawn as if in front of the other four, and dressed in bright green.
“It’s a prophecy!” Kai said excitedly, talking so fast he almost sounded like Jay. “We found it in Sensei’s bag that we took by accident, and Zane said it’s about one ninja rising above the rest and becoming the chosen one to defeat Lord Garmadon!”
“Technically, it only said dark lord—“ Zane started before Kai cut him off.
“Yeah, yeah, semantics,” he said, waving a hand dismissively. “You know what that means, though, right, Anya?”
“Uh…” Anya’s brain took a second to catch up with everything they said. “You guys don’t know how to mind your own business?”
“See?” Cole gestured towards Anya while still looking at Kai, who just rolled his eyes.
“It means,” Kai pressed on, “that one of us is destined to be the Green Ninja, and we’ve got to figure out which one it is!”
Anya shrugged, feigning nonchalance as the turned over what he had just told her in her mind. “Do what you want, I guess.”
“So what happened in town really was just a false alarm?” Nya asked, her and Jay joining the rest of the group.
“Yeah,” said Cole. “Turned out it was actually Garmadon’s son just trying to scare people into giving him candy.”
“He has a son?”
“Lloyd was there?”
Anya asked the second question at the same time Nya had asked hers. Guess that explained the mailman mentioning the kid from the “reformatory” school, though his knowledge on that front was apparently misinformed. For a moment the ninja looked confused as they tried to understand what both parties had said, then all heads, Nya included, all whipped around to look at her in surprise.
“You know him?!” Jay asked incredulously. Anya, feeling very uncomfortable with this much eye contact, felt her face heat up slightly as she forced herself not to look away.
“No, but I know of him,” she said. “I worked for Lord Garmadon, remember? He talked about his son sometimes, would write him letters and stuff.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense,” said Cole. “Lloyd seems to be following in his father’s footsteps, or trying to, at least. I’m sure someone in the village sent him back to his boarding school, though, so he’s not our problem anymore.”
Anya couldn’t help but wonder if sending Lloyd back to Darkley’s would end up causing more problems, considering the school’s actual goals for its students. Before she could ponder that line of thought much further, Kai cleared his throat.
“Anyway, we’re gonna need the space out here for our Green Ninja tournament. Sorry, sis,” he added as an aside to Nya.
Cole dug into a nearby supply cupboard, pulling out armfuls of training armour.
“Two matches,” he said, “then the winners of each face off for the title. Armors for our own protection.” He held up his Golden Scythe. “It's time to see what these babies can do!”
“Hey, Nya!” Kai called over his shoulder as she started to vacate the courtyard. “Wanna stay and watch me mop the floor with these guys?”
“No, thanks,” Nya laughed. “I think I’ll just visit Jamanakai Village, for real this time. Knock yourselves out.” She waved as she headed towards the gates.
Anya thought for a moment, then caught up to Nya in three quick strides. “I’ll join you,” she said. “I’ve had about enough of the monastery for one day.” Nya looked surprised, but then smiled, turning slightly to invite Anya to walk in tandem with her.
As they headed down the first few mountain steps, Nya looked up at Anya curiously.
“I heard a little of what Kai was telling you,” she said. “Something about a “chosen one” prophesy?”
Anya nodded. “Yeah, something about a ‘green ninja’ rising above the rest to defeat the dark lord, which I guess we’re assuming is Lord Garmadon.”
“That makes sense, who else could they be talking about?” said Nya. “So the guys think one of them’s destined to defeat him?”
“That’s what they’re saying.” Anya frowned thoughtfully as she recalled the illustration on the scroll. “There was a picture of what looked like the four of them with the Green Ninja in the middle, so I’m assuming they think that the Green Ninja represents what one of them could become?”
“What ‘they think?’” Nya asked. “Do you think something different?”
“I’m not sure,” Anya admitted. “I don’t know much about prophesies, but I do know that people can tend to misinterpret what they actually mean, right?”
“That’s true,” said Nya. “So the guys think the Green Ninja in the picture was what one of them will become, but there were still five ninja drawn altogether, right?”
“That’s what I was thinking,” said Anya. Nya laughed, seemingly half to herself.
“Kai looked so obsessed over that prophecy,” she smirked, “but just imagine the Green Ninja turning out to be someone new entirely!”
Anya laughed as well, and nudged Nya in the side with her elbow playfully.
“Who knows?” she said, grinning. “Maybe Sensei will take a look at it and say it’s actually you.”
“Oh, shut up!” Nya waved Anya’s arm away, her smile now a bit sheepish. “It’s probably more likely to be you, you’re more experienced anyway.”
“Me?” Anya asked incredulously. “I’m not sure if ‘trained by the dark lord that the chosen one is supposed to defeat’ really screams ‘chosen one’ experience. In any case,” she said, shaking her head and looking at Nya teasingly again. “I’m not sure if green’s really my color.”
Nya snorted.
“Could you imagine if that was an actual qualifier? Color theory?”
“I’m sure the guys are probably taking it into consideration.”
The rest of the walk down the mountain was filled with laughter, Anya feeling lighter with every step despite the long walk. It had been a process to integrate herself into this newfound group, so managing to find a real rapport with any of them so soon after they agreed to let her stay with them was incredibly relieving. No sooner did they reach Jamanakai Village, however, when the sounds of panicked screams reached their ears.
“What now?” Nya said. Anya’s eyes darted around, watching as the villagers all ran in different directions, their faces stricken with terror. Then, a bell from a shop rang out on their left, and Anya looked past Nya to see…
Three blue humanoid-looking snake people pushing a giant cart of candy of all things, and a small human boy who couldn’t have been any older than eight sitting on top of the pile smugly.
“Take the candy! Take it all! Muwuahahahaha!” the boy (probably Lloyd?) gave a somewhat juvenile attempt at a villainous cackle as more and more snake people flooded the streets. Anya didn’t know how long she stood frozen to the spot, but suddenly, Nya had grabbed her wrist and yanked her forward into a nearby alley, out of sight of the snakes.
“Are you okay?” Nya demanded, grabbing Anya’s shoulders and searching her face. “The Serpentine didn’t look right at you, did they?”
Serpentine. Of course that’s what they were. Anya had heard stories about them, an ancient race of snake people who had supposedly been at war with humanity for centuries before being locked in underground tombs. Growing up, Anya had never paid much mind to those stories, figuring they were just spooky tales to tell at sleepovers. Considering everything Anya had seen from multiple realms now, though, she supposed she couldn’t really be too surprised that the Serpentine were real.
“No,” she answered, seeing Nya’s shoulders sag with relief. “No, I don’t think they even saw me.”
“Okay,” Nya whispered, glancing back around the corner for a second. “Kai and I used to hear lots of stories about the Serpentine. I always believed them more than Kai ever did, so hearing about all the different kinds stuck with me. The blue ones, the ones we’re seeing now,” she gestured her thumb back towards the town square, “those are the Hypnobrai. The name’s pretty self-explanatory, but they have the ability to hypnotize anyone they make eye contact with.” She looked around the corner again and gasped. “Look!” she grabbed Anya again and pulled her forward to look in the same direction.
In the middle of the town square stood several villagers, all standing in front of a group of Hypobrai, swaying slightly almost as if they were intoxicated—
Or hypnotized.
Two of the Hypnobrai remained where they were, talking among themselves while the others raided the rest of the shops, presumably to get candy for Lloyd for some reason. One of the snakes, the only one with a long winding tail instead of legs and carrying a big golden staff, seemed to be delivering an order of some kind to the other one. The leader, most likely. He passed by a hypnotized villager, turning his staff carefully away from the person’s face.
“Some kind of antidote in the staff?” Anya whispered to Nya.
“An anti-venom, most likely,” she whispered back. “They’d need a fail-safe if something went wrong.”
The second snake, likely the general’s subordinate, held his hands out as he seemed to ask something, but the general just waved him away dismissively. The subordinate didn’t seem too happy about this, and turning away in frustration, was all at once way too close to spotting Anya and Nya.
“Shit!” Anya hissed as they ducked behind the corner again. Scanning the alleyway, Anya spotted a dumpster pushed against a fence, beyond which lay another series of alleys.
“This way,” she whispered to Nya, tilting her head toward the dumpster. Nodding once, Nya followed Anya on top of the dumpster and over the fence, and together the two of them continued, dodging snakes and weaving through alleys for the next several minutes until…
“Look!” Nya pointed to an alley right below them where Anya could spot four familiar-looking bright colorful hoods.
As the two of them jumped down, the Ninja all let out exclamations of relief.
“Nya?” said Jay. “You’re okay! Both of you,” he added hastily, looking at Anya, who just snorted at his attempt at a save.
“Barely,” said Nya. “They’ve hypnotized everyone in town!”
“Mind control? How is that even possible?” Jay shook his head in disbelief.
“When you hear them rattle their tails, don't look them in the eyes. That's how they get you,” Nya rattled off as fast as she could.
“Well, what are we supposed to do?” Jay threw up his hands in frustration. “We can't use our weapons, and now we gotta fight with our eyes closed? Ha! Perfect!”
“There’s a leader with them,” Anya cut in before Jay could ramble any further. “The one with the staff, he’s the general. Nya and I figure there’s some kind of anti-venom in the staff. If we can get that, we can save the village.”
The Ninja took this in, then Kai stepped forward. “Look, guys,” he said. “Forget about the whole Green Ninja thing. Let’s make Sensei proud.”
“Now you’re talking,” said Cole.
“Oh, and Nya,” Jay added, “you can be our honorary member.”
“And Anya too?” Zane cut in, causing Jay to splutter as he was caught shamelessly flirting with Nya again. Not that she was very amused.
“Gee, thanks,” she said, her voice practically dripping with sarcasm. Anya chuckled to herself as they all prepared to fight. One of these days Nya would kick all their butts at once (possibly in a green gi), and then they’d be eating their words for sure.
The fight was okay, all things considered. Kai attempted to avoid eye contact by fighting entirely with Spinjitzu, but quickly lost control and fell flat on his back. Ignoring Jay’s “Okay, we’re really out of shape,” though, Kai actually did have a good idea, and Anya decided to follow suit, her Spinjitzu a little more stable due to her more consistent training. The others fought similarly, and as Anya momentarily came to a stop, keeping her eyes carefully trained lower down, she saw Lloyd in her periphery making a run for it with his cart full of candy.
“Consider this a warning, Ninja!” he called over his shoulder, laughing cartoonishly again before abruptly being cut off by Zane, who stopped the front wheels of the cart in its tracks with his Shurikens, causing Lloyd to flop over the handlebars. “My candy!” he cried as Zane spun over to him with Spinjitzu.
“Sensei was right,” he said. “Never put off until tomorrow what can be done today. We should have dealt with you the first time.”
“Retreat!” Lloyd yelled, and the Serpentine general echoed the order, turning to lead the army out of the village. Anya took care of a couple stragglers who didn’t hear the order, until at last they cleared the area as well. That was all well, and good, but they still needed to save everyone with the…
“Cole!” Nya’s voice carried from a slight distance. Anya turned to see Nya jumping up to roundhouse kick the second-in-command from earlier as he advanced on Cole, who was holding the general’s staff. Disoriented, the snake left to follow the order of retreat, and Cole staggered back a bit as if dazed.
“You have the anti-venom!” Nya yelled. Cole shook his head slightly and seemed to come back to himself.
“By golly, you’re right!” he said.
“Quick,” said Nya, “the fountain!”
“Good idea!” Cole rushed to the top of the fountain, which had little currents of water running throughout the town streets. Slamming the staff down in the fountain, a blue mist emanated over the water, floating down all the currents. The closest villagers inhaled this mist on their own, causing their eyes to refocus as the hypnosis released its hold on them. The ones who were well were able to help the ones still in a hypnotized state, and soon all was well in the village again.
Anya followed the Ninja and Nya to the exit of the town, where Sensei Wu had just arrived. Kai came up to him first, his head bowed in shame.
“We're sorry, Sensei,” he said. “If we dealt with Lloyd before he became a problem, none of this would've been necessary.”
Wu’s expression softened into understanding. “Even lessons learned the hard way, are lessons learned.” He frowned again, though, as he surveyed the damage left by the Serpentine. “Hmm... a great evil has been released. I fear troubling times will come.” He looked at them all gravely. “This is only the beginning.”
“Then we will train,” said Zane, “and be ready for the Serpentine.”
“It might not be Lord Garmadon, but that doesn't mean we won't bring our A-game,” Cole added.
“Help us train,” Kai said. “Help us realize our potential.”
“Yeah, teach us the secrets behind the Weapons of Spinjitzu,” said Jay.
“Hmm.” Wu hummed thoughtfully. “There is much to teach. We must return to the monastery.”
This day was certainly a lot to take in. An ancient race of snakes let out to wreak havoc on Ninjago, seemingly under the thumb of a boy who had no idea how to handle this much power? This was sure to blow up at some point, though whether that was in the Ninja’s faces or Lloyd’s was unclear. Whatever happened, though. Anya would be right behind them every step of the way. With the danger mounting, she couldn’t afford to fail them after what they’ve done for her.
Several steps ahead of her, Nya sighed.
“When am I gonna get my own dragon?” she asked Sensei Wu.
“Patience, Nya,” said Wu. “Your time will come.”
Well, that just about confirmed Anya’s suspicions. It all added up, really. The five ninja illustrated in the prophecy, the way Nya was gaining skill at a faster rate than the other four when they started out, and now Wu’s reassurance?
Nya would be the Green Ninja.